Played - Episode 47
Published by Mark November 7th, 2008 in Main Page.
This time on Played, the crew notices that there’s a demo for Left 4 Dead–but none of them have actually played it yet. Mark and Chris have been playing Fable 2, Fallout 3 (4.7 million units sold shipped!), and Far Cry 2, however, and there’s plenty of discussion about those titles, while Liz shares her thoughts on Dead Space.
Plus, Liz’s Gadgetry segment returns, Chris battles a lingering illness, and Played announces a prize-packed theme song contest.
References: ezEars and ezStand
Hmmm… once your website gets more advanced, you should definitely start a login system so that we don’t get people pretending to be each other.
Anyway, this was a good podcast. On the subject of L4D, I think it looks better than I expected, but Valve really needs to create a new engine (if they aren’t already. Episode 2 really showed its age, and I can’t imagine what Ep3 will look like. But most PC gamers seem to give Valve a free pass — which I imagine is because they seem to be the platform’s last champion.
While I finally bought a 360 four months ago, I have essentially been a hardcore PC gamer since the 90s. And I have to say, that PC gaming hit its peak in the late 90s and early 2000 period with games like Baldur’s Gate 2, Deus Ex etc. Those were some great titles with lots of depth and complexity.
Because of the way the mass market works, I feel that most games of today (especially shooters) often feel like they are below their potential simply to appeal to everyone. I hope that doesn’t sound elitist…
Umm.. but yea, L4D is really awesome, and a lot of fun. Its major issue is its pricing. While the “director” works really well at making the levels feel fresh at every playthrough, the game just needs more levels. It feels like a title that should be priced at $20 — especially considering the value of a package like The Orange Box.
Also, does anyone else know how well Far Cry 2 did? I understand it sold a million in three weeks, but things went quiet since.
The best comment of this podcast, was Remo on FC2:
“The subtle restraint in this game was out of control!”
I found that quite funny.
So I got the new PoP game. I posted my comments elsewhere, but I thought I’d share them here as well and see what you guys think of the game on your next podcast:
Oh my gosh! It is very very good so far! I’ve played about a couple of hours, and it is just a lot of fun, and not at all the disaster I had expected from the cheesy demo movie. The graphics — which I had been skeptical about — work really well, and everything looks gorgeous. It isn’t just the technical excellence though; the art direction is also very good, and maintains the balance between cartoonish and edgy.
The gameplay has been streamlined from before with a new gimmick, which works surprisingly well. In the past we had the “turn back time” mechanic, which worked better than it had sounded on paper, and here we have a constant magical female companion, who performs rescue acts whenever the acrobatics go wrong. Again, on paper, it sounds horrible, but it works really well, especially when you realize how many hours of loading it saves you. Plus, it helps that the companion is made to look very attractive… well as attractive as a bunch of pixels can look. That’s another thing about the visuals, everything is highly tasteful. The hero is muscular, but he is more Raphael Nadal, than Hulk Hogan. The princess is pretty, but not like the giant funbags sluts that litter the video game landscape. Everything else, including the monsters, environments etc are all very restrained, and not at all over the top. Thankfully, the Persians are also drawn quite respectfully. It is a pity that their voices are more at home with every day America rather than what would have sounded more authentic, but oh well. Other than that, the voice acting is quite good. The game is also surprisingly humorous.
An interesting change is that conversation is triggered by the left trigger. While essential cutscenes start automatically — though they can be skipped –, conversations are optional, and can be activated at any time — and are almost always relevant. Fortunately, so far the dialog is excellent. The characters also have an endearing quality to them, and the protagonist is full of funny/cheesy one liners that are delivered with the right humility, giving them shades of the old Lucas Arts games. Heck, at times, the character reminds me a bit of Peter Parker.
Finally, I come to the combat, which is very good. I’d say that so far it is already deeper and more enjoyable than Sands of Time, or Assassin’s Creed.
Anyway, I am going back to the game, but I want to say that this whole package feels a lot like a Nintendo game. It just has that feeling of quiet dignified excellence to it. Let’s see how it pans out. From what I’ve read, some of the problems rear their ugly head later, but let’s see.
Nice post Pugnate.
After hearing for several people, reading some forum posts and reading your impressions I was very interested in checking out the game for myself. I got my hands on the game yesterday and couldn’t wait to pop it in. Though I only played it for 30 minutes–I’m enthralled with it.
Yes, the game really has a beautiful asthetic but something I don’t see people talking about is the dialog and banter between the two leads (dont know names yet)–I love it! The protagonist reminds me alot of Travis Touchdown from No More Heroes whom I love. Who knew this game would have such fun dialog, eh?
We’ll see how it pans out.